The phenomenal New York Times bestseller that "explores the upstairs-downstairs goings-on of a posh Parisian apartment building" (Publishers Weekly).
In an elegant hôtel particulier in Paris, Renée, the concierge, is all but invisible—short, plump, middle-aged, with bunions on her feet and an addiction to television soaps. Her only genuine attachment is to her cat, Leo. In short, she's everything society expects from a concierge at a bourgeois building in an upscale neighborhood. But Renée has a secret: She furtively, ferociously devours art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With biting humor, she scrutinizes the lives of the tenants—her inferiors in every way except that of material wealth. Paloma is a twelve-year-old who lives on the fifth floor. Talented and precocious, she's come to terms with life's seeming futility and decided to end her own on her thirteenth birthday. Until then, she will continue hiding her extraordinary intelligence behind a mask of mediocrity, acting the part of an average pre-teen high on pop culture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.
Paloma and Renée hide their true talents and finest qualities from a world they believe cannot or will not appreciate them. But after a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building, they will begin to recognize each other as kindred souls, in a novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us, and "teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors" (Kirkus Reviews).
The phenomenal New York Times bestseller that "explores the upstairs-downstairs goings-on of a posh Parisian apartment building" (Publishers Weekly).
In an elegant hôtel particulier in Paris, Renée, the concierge, is all but invisible—short, plump, middle-aged, with bunions on her feet and an addiction to television soaps. Her only genuine attachment is to her cat, Leo. In short, she's everything society expects from a concierge at a bourgeois building in an upscale neighborhood. But Renée has a secret: She furtively, ferociously devours art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With biting humor, she scrutinizes the lives of the tenants—her inferiors in every way except that of material wealth. Paloma is a twelve-year-old who lives on the fifth floor. Talented and precocious, she's come to terms with life's seeming futility and decided to end her own on her thirteenth birthday. Until then, she will continue hiding her extraordinary intelligence behind a mask of mediocrity, acting the part of an average pre-teen high on pop culture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.
Paloma and Renée hide their true talents and finest qualities from a world they believe cannot or will not appreciate them. But after a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building, they will begin to recognize each other as kindred souls, in a novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us, and "teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors" (Kirkus Reviews).
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Find The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
7 rue de Grenelle
7 rue de Grenelle
1 books in catalog
French contemporary fiction and philosophical storytelling found a massive international audience with the publication of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a novel exploring aesthetics, class, and interior lives within a Parisian apartment building. Muriel Barbery transformed her background as a formal philosophy educator into accessible, thought-provoking narrative prose that examines human connection, art, and the quiet dignity of overlooked lives.
Born on May 28, 1969, in Casablanca, Morocco, Barbery moved with her parents to France as an infant. She pursued advanced academic studies at the Lycée Lakanal, entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990, and obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993. She subsequently taught philosophy across several institutions, including the Université de Bourgogne, a lycée, and the Saint-Lô teacher training college (IUFM). Barbery made her literary debut in 2000 with Gourmet Rhapsody. Following the massive success of her second novel, she left her teaching career and received a residency at the Villa Kujoyama, living in Kyoto, Japan, from 2008 to 2009. After spending time in Amsterdam and Paris, she settled in the French countryside in Touraine.
Barbery's work frequently bridges formal philosophical inquiry with narrative intimacy. Drawing directly from her academic training, her prose reflects deeply on aesthetics, culinary art, solitude, and existential contemplation. Her residence in Japan introduced central motifs of Japanese tradition, gardens, and personal rebirth into her fiction, while other titles expand into fantasy realms and brief meditations on inspiration, cats, and the creative process.
1 books in catalog
French contemporary fiction and philosophical storytelling found a massive international audience with the publication of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a novel exploring aesthetics, class, and interior lives within a Parisian apartment building. Muriel Barbery transformed her background as a formal philosophy educator into accessible, thought-provoking narrative prose that examines human connection, art, and the quiet dignity of overlooked lives.
Born on May 28, 1969, in Casablanca, Morocco, Barbery moved with her parents to France as an infant. She pursued advanced academic studies at the Lycée Lakanal, entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990, and obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993. She subsequently taught philosophy across several institutions, including the Université de Bourgogne, a lycée, and the Saint-Lô teacher training college (IUFM). Barbery made her literary debut in 2000 with Gourmet Rhapsody. Following the massive success of her second novel, she left her teaching career and received a residency at the Villa Kujoyama, living in Kyoto, Japan, from 2008 to 2009. After spending time in Amsterdam and Paris, she settled in the French countryside in Touraine.
Barbery's work frequently bridges formal philosophical inquiry with narrative intimacy. Drawing directly from her academic training, her prose reflects deeply on aesthetics, culinary art, solitude, and existential contemplation. Her residence in Japan introduced central motifs of Japanese tradition, gardens, and personal rebirth into her fiction, while other titles expand into fantasy realms and brief meditations on inspiration, cats, and the creative process.
